Free Republic

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) passed a massive $1.2 trillion government funding plan despite the objections of the majority of House Republicans, violating the Hastert Rule and crossing the Rubicon into dangerous territory for the future of his speakership. House Republicans enacted the longstanding rule to prohibit Republican Speakers from colluding with Democrats to pass legislation. But Johnson sent the bill to the Senate despite the objections of 112 Republican colleagues, with only 101 Republican votes in favor, although Johnson and his leadership team applied significant pressure. Johnson also broke a House rule intended to give lawmakers time to review legislation...

But Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert revealed Ryan pledged to him he would not to move on either of those fronts. Breitbart reports: “House Speaker Paul Ryan and I had two substantive private discussions on the legislative agenda for the 115th Congress and came to an understanding,” Gohmert told Breitbart News. One Ryan promise that won his vote, said Gohmert, was Ryan’s support for the Hastert Rule, which forbids the House Republican leadership from holding votes on bills that are not supported by the majority of the House Republican Conference. That rules prevents the GOP leadership from quietly working with Democratic...

see, two landslide elections did accomplish something. ... the “doc fix” is simply and end run around the deficit accounting process. What is more unsettling is the way this piece of legislation came about. It seems to signal that the era of the “Hastert Rule,” where the Speaker will not entertain legislation without the consent of the majority of his caucus, is dead. ... The fact that the Speaker went to the Democrats first to get votes on this spending deal shows the extent to which Boehner has been mortally injured as a leader. It also tells us that the...

House Speaker John Boehner at his Jan. 8, 2015 press briefing. (AP Photo) (CNSNews.com) – House Speaker John Boehner has passed legislation opposed by a majority of his own party nine times since becoming speaker in January 2011.That places him ahead of his predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, and four votes shy of the record for violations of the “Hastert Rule.”The Hastert Rule, described by former House Speaker Dennis Hastert in 2004, refers to the idea that the House speaker will only bring legislation to the floor for a vote if it has the support of “the majority of the majority.”...

GOP Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma .. said he doesn't think relying heavily on Democratic votes is a "new normal." But he conceded the Republican-led Congress faces even tougher choices ahead, including another debt limit showdown this year, in which scores of conservatives are unlikely to help. ... Tuesday's vote was perhaps the final coffin nail in the "Hastert Rule," promulgated by former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. He said a speaker should not allow votes on major bills opposed by most of his caucus. More than two-thirds of House Republicans voted against the DHS bill Boehner offered Tuesday.

The only ethical response to betrayal by one's own leader is to find a new leader. There have been famous betrayals, but for America one stands out. Benedict Arnold was a general in the American Revolution. Thousands of officers and enlisted followed him, obeyed him, attended to his every word. That was prior to September 21, 1780 and his plot with the British to turn over the critically strategic ground of West Point to the British in exchange for money and position. After his betrayal of his country, it would have been a strange thing indeed to have found his...

A bill that reauthorized the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, which was criticized on the right as unnecessary interference by the federal government in the free market, passed the House in violation of the so-called “Hastert Rule” Thursday. The bill passed 297-117 overall. 106 Republicans voted “yea” while 116 Republicans voted “nay.” One Democrat, embattled Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV), voted no as well, while 191 Democrats voted yes. The Hastert Rule, the operating principle of former Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, requires support from a “majority of the majority.” Hastert has criticized Boehner for relying on Democratic votes on...

In what will be seen as another blow to immigration reform’s chances, a top pro-reform Republican in the House concedes House Republicans are not going to act on immigration reform this year, and he worries that the window for getting anything done next year is closing fast. “We have very few days available on the floor in the House, so I don’t think we’re going to be able to do it this year,” GOP Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida told me by phone today. Diaz-Balart has been deeply involved in bipartisan negotiations over immigration for years now, and is thought...

A new poll being released later Thursday could send a warning to politicians nationwide: Oppose immigration reform at your peril. The results from the survey, sponsored by a trio of GOP-friendly groups and provided to POLITICO in advance, indicate that voters will be warmer toward politicians who favor immigration reform, an effort that faces an uphill battle in the Republican-led House. -snip- Organizations that put together the poll includes Spies’s group (Republicans for Immigration Reform), as well as the Partnership for a New American Economy, the pro-reform coalition headed up by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Compete America,...

Politico reports that the House Republican leadership is struggling to come up with an agenda to fill the 19 legislative days that are left in 2013. The House will finish its work week on Wednesday. After that, it is out of session until November 12. Moreover, Speaker Boehner reportedly is thinking about canceling some of the remaining session days. I consider this good news. For one thing, it confirms that immigration reform is virtually dead this session. More broadly, there’s nothing of consequence the House can pass that the Senate will embrace. All things considered, then, out-of-sight, out-of-mind seems like...

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) will meet with President Obama at the White House on Tuesday to discuss immigration reform. Diaz-Balart is a key House Republican on the issue, and earlier this year had been working with lawmakers from both parties on a comprehensive House bill. -snip- Other lawmakers are also expected to attend the meeting, though the precise guest list is unclear. -snip- Obama has sought to pump up the pressure on Republicans over immigration, and won a small victory this week with Rep. Jeff Denham's (R-Calif.) decision to cosponsor a House immigration reform bill backed by Democrats.

A Republican congressman from a heavily Hispanic district is breaking ranks from his party to join Democrats in an eleventh-hour push for a broad immigration overhaul before the end of the year. Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) plans to sign on as the lone GOP member with 185 Democrats to co-sponsor a plan that would give millions of unauthorized immigrants the chance to attain citizenship. -snip- “I’m the first Republican,” he said in an interview. “I expect more to come on board.”

The Obama Administration has urged the House of Representatives to pass the immigration reform bill that would provide a pathway to citizenship to millions of undocumented people and accelerate the immigration of professionals from countries like India and China.

Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ) said on Wednesday at the Heritage Foundation-hosted Conversations with Conservatives press event that House Speaker John Boehner has promised him that the Senate’s “Gang of Eight” immigration bill is dead in the House. “I very recently had a conversation with the Speaker and if immigration reform moves, it’s going to move piecemeal,” Salmon said in response to a question from Breitbart News. “And it will go over one bill at a time and if there is any kind of conference, it will be on specific bills we send over. It will not be on the Gang...

Two leading conservatives are coming to Speaker John Boehner’s defense as he moves to put the Senate deal to open the government and hike the debt ceiling on the floor likely without the support of a majority of Republicans.

Carney announces that now the CR and Debt Ceiling have gone Obama's way, the president is putting "immigration reform" back on the front burner. "It's the right thing for America."

In a 2003 speech, then Speaker Denny Hastert (R-Ill.) discussed his House management guidelines that became known as “The Hastert Rule.” The rule calls for a leader not to send legislation to the House floor for a vote unless it has the support of the majority of the majority. On Wednesday, with just hours left to raise the debt ceiling or risk default, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio)–who has been holding fast to the Hastert Rule–has to decide whether to break it.

WASHINGTON — Senate leaders reached agreement Wednesday to avert a threatened Treasury default and reopen the government after a partial, 16-day shutdown, according to a Republican senator who also said the House might vote first on the plan to speed its approval.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has agreed to allow a vote in the House on the emerging Senate debt-ceiling deal, according to a Senate source.

 Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) were racing Wednesday to put the finishing touches on the deal ahead of Thursday's deadline for raising the $16.7 trillion debt limit.

U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent is among 14 House Republicans who have publicly said they would vote for a “clean” continuing resolution—not tied to defunding Obamacare—and he says there are plenty more. Dent, appearing Monday on CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer,” said that members have told him privately they would vote for a “clean CR” if it comes up for a vote. A total of 217 representatives are needed to pass the resolution. Other reports show 20 or more Republicans promising to vote for a clean continuing resolution. …